‘The Expanse’ Season 6 Episode 3 – ‘Force Projection’ Breakdown
Everything is coming into place, but Marco may have a new weapon waiting just off-screen this week on The Expanse.
This season of The Expanse is ramping up as every storyline continues to progress forward and every character keeps moving their space chess pieces into position. Relationships are continuing to strengthen and fracture across the various crews as we can see the story of the Roci moving towards the end game. Let’s discuss this week’s biggest talking points.
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The Expanse Returns to Laconia
By this point, it feels pretty obvious that we’re going to spend the beginning big of every episode this season returning to Laconia. This week seems to have given us more questions than answers.
Kara declines her brother’s invitation to play soccer after school in preference of checking in on the animals in the forest. There she finds that the broken drone is fixed and the dead bird revived. Kara thinks that the purring dog-sized creature is responsible and excitedly ran back home to tell her family.
Unfortunately, the tone is quickly brought down. She discovers her family weeping next to the very injured or possibly dead body of her brother. It’s a very sudden shift in tone. We’re wondering if she’s going to try and have the creature revive her brother and what the implications of this will be.
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Meanwhile On Ceres…
After declaring Ceres the belter capital, Marco and the crew leave the station with only three weeks’ worth of oxygen and rations. The result ripples through space as some belters feel abandoned, calling Marco a coward and shifting allegiances.
Filip raises these concerns to his father, but Marco quickly talks around the issue. He talks about strategy and loyalty, but he doesn’t seem to be saying anything of substance. He instead says whatever Filip wants to hear at that moment. It’s a reminder that Marco is a masterfully manipulative leader. He doesn’t entertain the concerns of others ever. The latter will come back again at the end.
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This abandonment leaves Earth an opportunity to gain a stronghold in Ceres. Chrisjen’s forces are there almost immediately. Once they discover how little Marco has left the station with though, it’s clear that this is a trap. Now the Earth forces will have to stretch their resources to the limit to save the million lives on Ceres. All before or risk looking responsible for a huge humanitarian disaster.
Soldiers are deployed to hand out rations and supplies to the belters. Everything seems to be going more or less okay until there is a huge explosion. We’re sure we will be returning to Ceres or the aftermath of what’s happened there in the next episode.
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Clarissa and Naomi Grapple With Their Pasts
This episode, and this entire season, has been very good at showing and candidly talking about loss, regret, and PTSD. Clarissa talks about her mods and how she only got them to seek revenge against Holden. She explains that her choices are her own, but she is still grappling with the weight of her own past.
Shortly after Naomi and Holden talk about how she froze in the last mission. Naomi explains her feelings of PTSD. Both scenes felt like character development and the bonding of crew members, but also a quiet before a storm.
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Marco vs. The Roci
The Roci, en route to Ceres, unknowingly passes by Marco’s fleet. Instead of letting them pass, Marco decides this is a perfect opportunity to take down Holden and the Roci. The action is against the requests of Marco’s crew.
What results is a tense space battle in which the Roci should be out-manned and out-gunned. Thankfully, they have the quick thinking of Bobbie and a fair amount of good old fashion good luck. Neither ship surrenders or is destroyed, but the Roci has clearly defeated Marco’s ship in battle, which leaves the belters limping back into space.
Filip, once again, confronts his father, claiming that they didn’t need to engage in this fight and the loss was entirely on Marco’s shoulders. This is a criticism that many on the ship and in the audience likely agreed with, but Marco angrily excused Filip from the bridge. This is further proof that their relationship and Filip’s loyalty are on the rocks.
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We are quickly taken to Marco getting a call as a ship emerges from the Laconia Ring Gate.
“If this one performs as well as the others, it will be fun,” the voice on the other end says, implying a weapon. We don’t know much about the ship or the weapon it may be carrying aside from the codename: RS-RG-6.
Some are thinking “RG” can stand for “rail gun.” This would have the potential to make this a very scary weapon and explain Marco’s seemingly undeserved confidence in the face of odds stacking higher and higher against him. But we won’t know more until next week’s episode of The Expanse.
Did you enjoy of this episode of The Expanse? What do you think Marco’s new weapon will be? Who’s storyline are you enjoying following the most?
Let us know in the comments!
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